The girl without a sword(p. nk, Altar)

Momo felt three fingers push against her forehead. It caused her to slightly lose her balance, but her head shot up and she was met by reassuring words from her new teacher. He told her that he would accept her on the final condition that she would not reveal his rank as an ANBU. That was easy enough Momo figured. It was sad to say, but one of Momo’s greatest traits was her ability to lie and mask her emotions, a tool which would be key to her future.
 
Momo would look into his eye showing her compliance to the final and most important rule. Afterwards, Momo would stand seeing as kneeling was no longer required. Momo watched as the boy turned his attention from her to the lake. He seemed to be thinking of something. Momo wondered what it was, but figured she didn’t know him well enough to even bother asking. She didn’t want to spoil the progress they had made.
 
The boy then informed Momo that they would start their training tomorrow and that he would send for her so that she would know where and when. That seemed a bit ambiguous, but he was an ANBU after all so she didn’t question his logic.
 
Momo would then smiled pleased as her excitement returned. “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Momo said grabbing him in excitement then releasing him once she realized how she had reacted. “I’ll see you tomorrow!” Momo wondered about what kind of training she would do. It sure would be hard to go to sleep that night knowing that her training would begin tomorrow. Momo would wait until they said their goodbyes till returning home.
 
The Next Day…
 

Momo woke up early. She didn’t require an alarm clock because she had barely slept. She was full of excitement and energy regardless of her lack of sleep. Momo got bathed and dressed pronto. Wearing black shorts and a shirt underneath her dark blue robe and purple rope belt which kept her robe closed. On her possession was a scroll along with two ninja weapon pouches and her kirigakure headband which hung tightly tied from her belt. Momo had been renting a small one bedroom home in Kirigakure with the money she had collected from those she had killed in her previous town. She had gathered enough to get by for at least a few months. Momo waited patiently, staring at the front door of her home for some sort of sign. She was ready to begin her new journey.

Altar wouldn't break character as he was grabbed by the frantic and excited girl. He would simply smile as he had been. 

Nodding a simple goodbye, Altar would step out into the lake, taking a few steps before vanishing in a blur of speed.

The next day, Altar would awaken at the first crack of light through his window. Rising with a stretch and a yawn, he was surprisingly glad to be unmet by the low rumble of a sleeping elder dragon. He had informed Tenebris of his plan earlier. The dragon must have slept the night at the arranged location. Good, less work for Altar. The boy would quick shower and throw on some loose clothing, black pants, topped by a mesh undershirt and black jacket that covered what needed to be. As he shut the door to his house, a carrier bird would be leaving his window, headed for Momo's apartment. The bird would deliver a letter stating directions to the area Altar was at. After checking archives, he had found that Momo was renting small apartment in Kirigakure. Strange for a Genin, as he was unsure of how she had received the money for such a thing. He'd have to ask her later.

After about an hour, everything was set for Momo's arrival at the field. She should arrive shortly, all working as planned. The area Altar had picked was a wide open field, with a myriad of training equipment set up around it. About 20 meters away, was a desolate area of Shimagakure that had never been inhabited by Kirigakure's people. It would serve as the portion of the test where Tenebris came in. The elder dragon of course was out of sight for now, hiding on a rooftop in the mist.

After Momo arrived, Altar would clap his hands together. "Welcome. I'm hoping you slept well last night as you'll need all the energy you can have for today's short training session." Altar would say with a grin, highlighting his canines. "First thing's first, we have to see where you stack up. So, I have a...few...initiation tests set up for you. They'll help me get an idea of where you are and what to focus on. So, pick your poison." The boy would say. This was, of course, VERY freelance and open ended, but that's what he wanted. The girl, of course, would gravitate towards the things she was good at first. It was human nature. And the things she struggled with, she'd pick last.

The areas were set to accomodate any style of fighting the girl may brandish. Targets were set for accuracy with Ninjutsu as well as kunai and shuriken, there were dummies for Taijutsu and swordsmanship, weighted bags for strength, as well as a test for reaction time.

Momo waited eagerly for some sort of sign to arrive telling her where to go. She wondered what form the message would come in. Moments later a small pecking sound could be heard against the front door of Momo’s small apartment. There was a bird bearing a message. The bird dropped the letter containing the directions and whereabouts of where the training was going to take place. Once the bird had completed its task it flew away. Momo thought it was pretty clever how he was able to find out where she had been residing. Although, he was an ANBU so she was sure he had his ways. Kind of creepy honestly.
 
Momo followed the directions which lead her to a field. The field was littered with training equipment and so forth. Immediately, Momo’s eyes were drawn to him as she neared. Once they were in relative talking distance, he would begin to clap and welcome her, assuring her that she would have needed a good night’s rest if she were to get through todays training. Momo wasn’t much of a sleeper as it was. She was too hoped up on adrenaline and excitement as it was. The boy then said that the first thing was to see what she was made up. He had set up a few tests for her so that he could get an idea of where she was and what she was capable of.
 
Momo didn’t know where to start. She tried to get a feel for what was available to her around her so she could make the proper first impression and reassure the ANBU that he was indeed not training a waste of time. Momo’s eyes flickered back and forth, starting with targets set up for Ninjutsu as well as kunai and shuriken practice. Next she noticed the dummies most likely used for taijutsu and swordsmanship and then weighted bags for strength.
 

“Shit.. Not much I can do here. I gotta make use of what I have I guess..”
 
For the most part, Momo knew very little ninjutsu and was not necessarily spectacular in taijutsu or was irregularly strong. She would have to make do with what she had. Momo began to reach behind her back and slip her hand into the ninja pouch containing the scroll. For a moment, Momo’s actions halted as she thought over her next few actions.
 
“I have to save this for when it is truly necessary.” She thought as she removed her hand and then brought them to her front. Her demeanor had changed almost instantly. She was ready to attack. Momo flashed a few hand signs as quick as she could causing a thick mist to become present in the surrounding area. Momo then removed all 5 kunai and shuriken from her ninja pouch as the mist shrouded her location. She would then release them all in the same direction, but in such angles where they would reflect off of each other and connect individually with most of the training equipment around her. Shuriken bouncing off of each other and piercing the weight training bags. Three kunai, each perfectly piercing a target. Another kunai striking one of the two dummies present. Momo then performed hand signs again as fast as she could, her body disappearing in a blur of speed. She would then appear behind the dummy which had not been stricken. She held the remaining kunai in her hand in such a way that it was wrapped around the dummy and pressed at the upper middle part of it, as though she was demonstrating an assassin technique to cut the throat of her target. Momo released the mist with her free hand so that the ANBU could see what she had done. Surrounding them were all the targets, dummies and weight bags, each with a shuriken or kunai presently embedded in it. Momo hoped that he would have impressed her teacher, although she couldn’t help feel as though she wasn’t good enough.

Altar would sit in silence as the girl seemed to debate on where to go first and what to do. Expected, she was fresh from the academy. This was all basic equipment, but she had most likely never been instructed to use it this way before. The girl reached her hand into a small pouch, before hesitating and withdrawing her hand. Strange. As Altar pondered what was in the bag, a chill encompassed the area. The girl's mindset and stance had changed, from a meandering, thinking demeanor to a much more lethal one. As the girl moved, a smile crept over Altar's face.

Forming handsigns, the girl let loose a mist to cover the area. This would be debilitating to anyone of the girl's own level, but to Altar, it was visible via shadows and sound. The girl withdrew a few objects from her ninja pouch, releasing them all at one target. However, it would seem they all collided at such angles and trajectories that they flew off of eachother and all struck seperate targets. After the shuriken and kunai had struck the targets, the girl flickered over to the training dummy and pressed a single kunai to it's throat, releasing the mist.

As the mist faded, Altar's eyes would sweep over the scenario, his hands coming together to applaud the girl. She had struck all her targets. That was far from his intentions, but he now knew where the girl's strengths were. She was adept with weaponry, seemingly preferring range to close combat as well. "Well done, Momo. Not exactly what I had in mind, but improvisation can be surprisingly effective in situations such as this. You found no proper way to display prowess, so you made your own. I'd say you passed." Altar would say with a chuckle, walking by every target and studying it intently. Her accuracy was impressive for a genin. Though it was much harder to hit a moving target.

Moving to stand before Momo, assuming she was at ease now and had collected her things back from the targets, Altar would speak. "Anyone of your ability would have been struck by that. However, the true test is how you deal against someone who possesses abilities beyond yours." The boy would say with a smile, before turning to face the edge of the area they stood in, towards the desolate cityscape.

"Venite, Tenebris!" The boy would say, holding an open hand towards the sky. And like thunder after lightning, his dragon would crash to the ground, landing on his legs with an impressive thud. The dragon would eye him curiously, his molten gaze shifting to the girl before returning to Altar. "Et vocatus est, Altar?" the dragon would say, the low rumble of his voice practically shaking the earth.

"Et nunc incipit disciplina, amici." The boy would say. And with what looked to be a nod, the dragon would soar back to the sky, getting lost to the naked eye in the cityscape. With that taken care of, Altar would turn back to Momo. "Long story, that's my pet dragon Tenebris, though he's more like a brother to me than a pet. I've instructed him not to harm you under any circumstances, and not to hide or stay stationary. This part of the training is simple." The boy would say, before sweeping an arm over the ruined cityscape. "Find him, and touch him. You may use anything you currently have at your disposal. You can traverse by the streets or rooftops. However, I want you to treat this as a stealth mission. I'll be following close behind to watch for foul play, and if I hear one unsolicited peep, it's mission failed and we're back at the beginning. Understood?"

The boy would wait for confirmation from the girl before taking her to the starting point and letting her go.

The cityscape was an intricate combination of open streets lined with markets, and small alleys. There was a thick mist covering the streets below the rooftops, making this a hard task for the girl. Lucky for her, Tenebris, being a magma dragon, had a peculiar orange glow that emanated from the mist. However, this could be waylaid by the dragon hardening it's skin over the magma. There were dozens of abandoned buildings to make way through.

*For reference, this is what Tenebris looks like - http://img00.deviantart.net/e3f1/i/2011/110/f/1/magma_dragon_by_njoo-d3ef1ma.jpg*